Dirty Dresses and Day Old Hair

By far, one of our best decisions was taking day after pictures. We knew with a December wedding, we would be racing the sun to capture outdoor pictures in the daylight, especially without the luxury of a first look (I went old school with this one! Didn’t see Dill until I walked down the aisle!) While it may not matter to some, pictures were a big deal to us. We are visual story tellers, and photos are one of our love languages. Wedding pictures were incredibly important. Although we had enough time to capture our big ticket pictures outside with our wedding party after the ceremony, Dillon and I wanted to be able to devote time for pictures of him and I.

We asked our photographer if he would be willing to book us for a portrait session the day after he shot our wedding. Luckily, he was down! Since we were flying out to Arizona that evening, in classic Dill and Kell style, we crammed a photo shoot in the mere hours after our wedding! We woke up decently early to put back on our wedding attire. I was giddy putting my dress back on. How lucky was I that I got to put it on again!? And, bless Dillon’s dear heart for helping me with the many buttons. I slept in my hair all done up from the day before and touched it up with some bobby pins. I did my own makeup (big ol’ LOL) but hey, it turned out fine! It was chilly outside and I knew we would be walking around, so I through on my puffer jacket. And, you bet I wore my Nikes underneath my dress for the whole shoot…the heels were not happening that morning. We climbed in an Uber, smiling at the many confused faces at a bride and groom at 9am on New Years Day, and headed to our first destination.

We started at a coffee shop, roamed around city streets and bridges, drove to an overpass with some gorgeous textured walls and shadows, and made our way to Lincoln Park Zoo and eventually the lake front. Our photographer was awesome with ideas, and even turned the car on for me to hop in and warm up in between shots. (Mike Williams took our photos, and there will be a whole post about just how awesome he was!) It was so much fun romping around in my dress and taking pictures with my new husband. I remember feeling so insanely happy, albeit chilly as heck! (But, for Jan. 1st in Chicago, the 30 degree weather was a blessing) And, yes, my dress got dirty. The bottom was a dark dark shade of grey. So worth it.

If I could offer one piece of advice for anyone getting married that really cares about photos- take post wedding pictures. If you are okay to put the dress on again and get that sucker a little dirty, do it. It is worth it. Maybe you don’t need to do it the day after your big wedding, but the fact that we have those first few moments as husband and wife captured forever…that’s so priceless.